As many as five women filed a petition seeking permission for daily worship of Hindu deities whose idols are said to be located on an outer wall of the Gyanvapi mosque.
The Varanasi district court on Monday rejected the Muslim side’s petition and said the suit is maintainable. The next hearing of the case is on September 22.
Hindu side will now move for Court mandated survey and removal of the ‘wall’ constructed to ‘hide facts’. They will also pray for further investigation to establish how old the Shivling is found in the ‘Wazukhana’ area. All this is subject to approval of court in the next hearing that is scheduled to be heldon September 22.
Earlier today, prohibitory orders were clamped and security were tightened in Varanasi ahead of the district court order on the maintainability of the plea in the Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri case.
Varanasi Commissioner of Police (CP) A. Satish Ganesh said that a foolproof security plan is in place for Monday. He said that police and paramilitary forces will also be deployed in and around areas having mixed populations.
To maintain law and order, he said, the entire city has been divided into sectors which have been allocated police force as per their requirement.
Claiming that patrolling vehicles will be positioned at strategic points, the official said quick reaction teams have been formed to act in case of eventuality. Any bid to disturb the law-and-order situation would be dealt with strictly, Ganesh said, appealing to people not to get misled by rumours.
WHAT IS THE GYANVAPI MASJID CASE?
As many as five women filed a petition seeking permission for daily worship of Hindu deities whose idols are said to be located on an outer wall of the Gyanvapi mosque. The Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee has said the Gyanvapi mosque is a Waqf property and has questioned the maintainability of the plea.
However, Madan Mohan Yadav, a lawyer of the Hindu side, had reportedly claimed that the mosque was constructed after demolishing the temple.
Earlier, a lower court had ordered a videography survey of the complex. The survey work was completed on May 16 and the report was presented in the court on May 19.
In the lower court, the Hindu side had claimed that a Shivling was found during the videography survey of the Gyanvapi mosque-Shringar Gauri complex but it was contested by the Muslim side.
Following the directive of the Supreme Court to decide the maintainability of case 693/2021 on priority, the district judge started the hearings on May 20.
